I never learn. Although I know that I should back up all of my data on a regular basis for that inevitable catastrophic system crash, I never seem to have the time to do it.

What's even worse is that I have all the technology for hassle-free back-ups.

Using a combination of Windows XP and an Iomega 20GB USB removable Peerless drive, I can set up an agent easily to back up all of my critical settings at regular intervals. But there always seems something else to do and back-up gets pushed down the list.

Naturally, things go wrong. I came back from holiday with a Sim card full of photos and was eager to transfer my pictures onto my PC. But, horror of horrors, I couldn't log on to my system.

I vaguely remembered my PC asking me to change my password. Of course, a week later I had forgotten it. Panic. Everything was on my hard drive.

While I applaud the security features in XP, I realised that without my password I would probably have to ring my Microsoft reseller contacts and suffer the embarrassment of telling them what I had done. I had visions of sending away the disk and having days without a PC.

But then I realised that I am not alone. If you are like me, you are probably inundated with different forgettable passwords.

Although I like the idea of the 'electronic wallet' to store passwords, I am concerned that if the wallet is breached, unauthorised people will have access to my bank details and other information that could be used to create an electronic doppelganger.

On the flip side, one call to a reseller that could have a replica of the wallet stored as a secure managed service could have given me the password I needed to log on to my system.

Fortunately, after a few drinks I remembered my password and understood the true beauty of back-up. It had been a close shave.